Gut Bacteria

We are all aware of the health benefits of dietary fiber. But what is dietary fiber and how do we metabolize it? Researchers begun to uncover how our gut bacteria metabolize the complex dietary carbohydrates found in fruits and vegetables. Trillions of bacteria live in human intestines — there are about ten times more bacterial cells in the average person’s body than human ones. Known as “microbiota,” these bacteria have a vital role to play in human health: they are central to our metabolism and well-being.

University of British Columbia researchers have discovered the genetic machinery that turns a common gut bacterium into the Swiss Army knife of the digestive tract – helping us metabolize a main component of dietary fibre from the cell walls of fruits and vegetables.

The human digestive tract is inhabited with roughly 100,000,000,000,000 microorganisms, which amazingly accounts for 50% of the weight of the contents of the lower digestive track. The daily caloric intake that comes from the breakdown of dietary fiber buyer gut bacteria approaches 10%. Researchers from the University of British Columbia, teamed up with the University of Michigan, the University of York and the Swedish Royal Institute of technology to discover how a common gut bacterium helps us metabolize a main component of dietary fiber from the cell walls of fruits and vegetables.

As the saying goes, you are what you eat. But new evidence suggests that the same may also be true for the microbes in your gut. A Harvard study shows that, in as little as a day, diet can alter the population of microbes in the gut—particularly those that tolerate bile—as well as the types of genes expressed by gut bacteria.

It is becoming common knowledge that the human intestinal system is dependent upon a diverse and populous mix of beneficial bacteria in order to maintain strong immunity and to function as designed. But new research out of Georgia has shown, perhaps for the first time, that natural gut bacteria is also necessary to repair and maintain a healthy intestinal cellular system and that gut microbes are fully capable of regrowing damaged or compromised tissue.